


Nightmares and Cuddles

by the_lost_fandoms



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst and Humor, Bilingual Lance (Voltron), Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Boys In Love, Comfort, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gay Keith (Voltron), Hurt, Hurt/Comfort, I'm Bad At Tagging, Korean Keith (Voltron), Lance (Voltron) Speaks Spanish, M/M, Nightmares, Nonbinary Character, Nonbinary Pidge | Katie Holt, Not Canon Compliant, Space Dad Shiro (Voltron), Space Uncle Coran (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-22
Updated: 2018-10-22
Packaged: 2019-08-05 16:12:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16370852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_lost_fandoms/pseuds/the_lost_fandoms
Summary: The day isn't easy on the paladins, with a tough and dangerous battle.The night is no easier on Keith, but at least he has Lance around to keep him safe.





	Nightmares and Cuddles

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, this is a hurt/comfort fic
> 
> There is a moment of violence but it is just referenced and isn't graphic 
> 
> Suicide is said once, but it has no meaning behind it, and is more in a joking manner and added as a descriptor

It had been a long day for the paladins of Voltron. They had gotten a distress signal from one of the planets but it had turned out to be a trap. The Galra had already invaded the planet and enslaved it's people. The fight had been long and hard. Hunk had taken a fairly brutal hit at the beginning of the fight and had been out of commission the entirety of the battle after that. The rest of the paladins barely made it out of the planet alive, each one of them scratched and painfully bruised.

Allura and Coran were waiting for them on the bridge, both looking as exhausted as the paladins felt. Of course Coran did work to brighten the mood for the paladins and the princess. "Good work out there, paladins! With your help we managed to gain another planet to the coalition!" His bright tone was a little too much for the paladins in that moment, each one worn out from the days endeavours, with no intents on speaking so brightly.

Coran, luckily, seemed to get the idea that the moment was not the best time engage the paladins, and it was Shiro to speak next. "alright, team. I agree with Coran, good work out there. Now, get some rest."

Pidge flashed their brown eyes at Shiro. "No need to tell me twice!" They chirped before taking off down the hall, probably to work on one of their projects, not that the others would ask. Last time Hunk had asked what they were working on he'd been forced to listen for hours on end, being too nice to say he was bored and disinterested in whatever it was. Even to this day he had no idea what Pidge had been going on about.

Hunk was next to leave, grumbling about the fact that his stomach had been growling throughout the entirety of the battle and that 'if I don't get food in me in the next half an hour someone's gonna get it'. That rose a chuckle from Lance. He found it amusing that Hunk had managed to have even part of his mind on food during the battle. He himself had been far too distracted to think of anything besides surviving.

Lance left the bridge after him, probably to put on a face mask and pop on some headphones while he relaxed in bed. That always seemed to be what Lance did. That or tormenting Keith, whichever one came up first.

Of course Lance and Keith didn't hate each other. In fact, the two were secretly seeing each other behind closed doors. Then again, just because it was behind closed doors and they hadn't outright said it didn't mean that the others didn't know. Pidge had been seeking out any sort of proof that they were together. Hunk and them were in a bet, with Pidge saying they were seeing each other and Hunk saying they were just realising that the whole 'rivalry' was stupid and were becoming friends.

Allura also had her suspicions, but she kept them to herself. She had noticed Lance's lack of flirtatious comments, and whilst she still received quite a few, there were far less and were less meaningful than they were before. It was more like they were habit now, not him actually attempting to date her. Keith had also seemed a lot less headstrong. Don't get her wrong, he was still stupidly self-sacrificing, and he very often went headfirst into battles in a way that almost made her question if he was suicidal, but it was less frequent, and he seemed to care more about whether or not he was harmed, almost as if it would upset someone if he was.

Shiro suspected as well. He'd known Keith since before the boy had entered Garrison, and he'd not once seen Keith act the way he does around Lance. Shiro noticed the puppy dog eyes, the gentle smiles, and the way Lance and Keith's hands brushed as they walked passed each other, almost as if they were desperate to hold hands. Not to mention the fact that Keith always called to Lance first. Whenever Keith was trapped, attacked or injured he'd call for Lance. It was instinct, Shiro knew now.

Coran was the only oblivious one to the change in their relationship. He hadn't noticed the way the two boys would tend to stick closer to each other, or the way they were more often seen by each other than not. He'd not come to notice any of this. Allura and Coran left together, claiming that they had to recheck the castles defenses after the fight to make sure nothing was too seriously damaged. As they left they began to speak with animated features and hand motions to emphasize their words.

Now left standing was Shiro and Keith, with a silence settled over them for the moment. Deciding to break it, Shiro said, "I was thinking about exploring the deeper regions of the castle, would you like to join me?" He arched an eyebrow to add emphasis to his question to Keith.

Keith genuinely seemed to think about it for a moment, tilting his head to the side, before shaking his head and straightening back up. "No, I think I'm going to train." Shiro didn't need to hear it to know that Keith was disappointed in himself, in the way the battle had gone. He could tell that Keith felt guilty for all that went wrong. It seemed Keith had a talent of putting the blame on himself, rather than blaming everybody, and it bothered Shiro to some degree, though he would never say anything of it. Besides, he did the same thing, and that would just make him a hypocrite.

"Okay," Shiro started, "but Keith, today wasn't your fault," he seemed to try and ease, setting a hand on Keith's shoulder, only to have it shrugged off by the smaller, younger male, who in turn took a step away.

"I know, Shiro," he said, but it was obvious he didn't. Before Shiro could offer any more condolences, Keith was walking out of the room at a steady but quick pace, clearly done with the conversation at hand.

The group wasn't reunited until dinner, which was short and quiet. The only people that weren't having much trouble eating were Hunk and Coran. It seemed everyone else's minds were still lost to the battle of the day. The people from the table quickly left one by one until it was just Hunk, who cleaned up, as he always did. He refused to let anyone else do it because he was worried they'd mess up the order of where things were, not that anyone was complaining, that just meant less work for them, though Shiro did stay behind occasionally to offer assistance if it was needed.

It was now late into the night.. or at least the castles manufactured version of night. About 2 in the morning, if Lance's clock was anything to say about it, and for the life of him he could not force sleep to take over. He'd been tossing and turning all night, but he could find absolutely no comfort whatsoever.

After about the millionth time of rolling onto his right side, Lance let out a low, deep groan and pushed himself up into a sitting position, flinging his legs over the side of his bed. He stood up, his bare feet sliding into his blue lion slippers. He decided to take a stroll around the dark castle to see if that would offer even the slightest bit of aid in sleeping. His door made the usual hissing sound as it opened and he stepped out into the hallway, turning left and starting to walk. He wasn't sure where he was headed, too lost in thought to care. He was thinking about an arrangement of things, from his family to Keith to the battle from earlier.

He'd been about to turn into the kitchen to grab the Altean equivalent of a warm glass of milk when he heard a noise come from behind him. He turned around, looking around the dark hallway to try and spot the person or thing that made the noise, but couldn't spot anything. Chalking it up to sleep deprivation, Lance turned around again and was about to go inside the kitchen when the noise started up again, this time louder and more defined. Lance realized it was a groan. He couldn't tell if it was a groan of pain or a groan of fear, but either way it wasn't good.

He quickly turned around once again, beginning to walk down the hall, pressing his ear to each door. Pidge's room first.. silent. Hunk's.. no noise. Shiro's.. still. Finally, he got to Keith's room and pressed his ear against the door again. He was about to walk away, hearing nothing, when it came again, this time with a gasp.

Lance didn't even think before he slammed his palm against the sensor that glowed blue. The door made a hissing sound before opening. Lance flicked on the lights, expecting to see a fight, or Cosmo using Keith's foot as a chew toy, or something similar to that.

What he saw instead shocked him. It was Keith, curled up into a ball on the bed, his blankets having been forced off of him carelessly, sweat matting his forehead and causing his long, black hair to stick to it. His eyes were screwed closed and he was trembling, his breath coming out in quick, fast intervals.

He was so obviously scared that it hurt and Lance wanted, so desperately wanted, to look away. Keith.. his Keith.. was locked in some trap called a nightmare. Lance then remembered his family back home. His nieces and nephews used to get nightmares all the time, he remembered. He also recalled how to calm someone down from one, and while he was aware Keith was no child, he was fairly certain waking him up the way he'd wake up a child would be the best option.

He slowly made his way over to the bed, his footsteps light, padded by the slippers he wore. He climbed up onto the too firm matress, sitting down so that his back was rested against the headboard. He moved his hands slowly but purposefully, reaching out and setting one hand on Keith's shoulder while the other went to the boys hair. It was gross to Lance how sweaty it was, but Lance put no thought in that. Right now Keith needed him.

Lance started to gently move his fingers through Keith's hair, untangling the knots so lightly that it was almost like the knots weren't even there. "Keith," Lance whispered gently, though loud enough to be heard, "mi amor, wake up," he encouraged.

In that moment Lance's finger snagged on a knot and Keith let out a loud yelp, flinched away, and curled tighter in on himself, breath picking up even more. Lance silently cursed at himself for causing the reaction.

He quickly pushed away the guilt, though. He needed to rouse Keith, but he had to do it gently. He knew Keith well enough to know that if he was startled into consciousness he might attack first and ask questions later, and Lance didn't want that for two reasons. One, that would hurt, and two, it might be even harder to calm Keith down.

So Lance instead just proceeded with his gentle raking, taking a moment to think about his approach before continuing, "mi amor, it's just a dream.. wake up, cariño," Lance tried to encourage Keith to wake up lightly. He gently shook the male, as words seemed to be doing no good, and that seemed to do the trick, but not in the way that Lance wanted it to. Keith bolted up with a yelp, his hands seizing Lance's wrists, pulling them off of him and forcing them down to the bedding to pin him down.

He flung one leg over Lance so he was straddling him, sitting on his thighs to prevent him from moving, and his violet eyes latched onto Lance, almost unseeing.

Keith was horrifyingly beautiful like this, hair matted to his face by sweat, tears streaking down his flushed pink cheeks, leaving salty tracks. His chest was rising and falling too fast, the breaths he was taking were pointless, as they weren't giving him enough air to be useful.

He looked so worn down, so broken that it hurt Lance to see. He wanted to look away, to shield his eyes until Keith was less shattered, but he couldn't do that. Keith needed him, now more than ever because he was so shattered, broken and worn down, and Lance simply couldn't turn Keith away when he was like this, so instead he looked at him sympathetically.

"Mi alma, it's okay.. you're okay," Lance told him gently. He didn't try to move his hands from where they were being held against the bed, knowing that Keith would let him go as soon as he realised what he was doing. Lance trusted Keith enough to not fight back against his hold, even when Keith didn't recognize him and was too panicked to think straight.

Keith took a shuttering breath, and that's when something flickered in his eyes, that something being recognition. "L-L-La-Lance.." the word very obviously didn't want to come out, fighting against his tongue and lips. His grip instantly loosened and, while still tense, he relaxed fractionally. The tears seemed to start coming faster and Lance moved his hands slowly to cup Keith's cheeks, wiping away at the tears.

"I-I-I'm so-sorry, Lance.. I'm s-s-so so-sor-ry.." each word was obviously getting harder and harder to force out and he was shaking like a leaf in the cold breeze of October.

"Oh, baby," Lance whispered, softly shaking his head, still wiping at the tears that were falling. "you don't need to be sorry. You haven't done anything wrong," he promised. Keith shook his head like he was going to protest, but he didn't. He probably wasn't able to force the words out. Instead, he surged forward, burying his head into Lance's chest.

His silent tears turned into sobs, the trembling turned into shaking, and now he was clutching at Lance like he was the only thing keeping Keith together; and maybe he was.

Lance had dropped his hands from Keith's cheeks when he'd charged forward to hide against Lance, and now had his arms firmly wrapped around Keith's waist. He had his head leaned down, with his lips in Keith's hair, placing repetitive kisses on the crown of his head. In between each kiss Lance whispered sweet nothingness. Occasionally it would be reassuring phrases like, "you're okay" or "it's okay", sometimes it'd be soft, little "shhh"'s and sometimes it would be a Spanish pet name, like, "mi vida" or "amante".

Lance wasn't sure how long it was before the violent shaking turned back into light trembling, before heaving sobs turned into the occasional hiccup, before the death grip turned into a light hold, but Lance didn't care. He couldn't find it in him to care. He would sit holding Keith for the rest of eternity if he had to without complaint.

"I'm sorry.." Keith eventually let slip again, moving one hand to wipe his eyes, which were now red rimmed. He looked exhausted, but that wasn't a suprise. Crying often took all the energy from a person. "Keith," Lance whispered, tilting Keith's head up so his purple eyes met Lance's blue ones, "never be sorry for something like this, okay?" He commanded softly. He would not put up with apologies over something like this. He had to make sure Keith knew he had not done anything wrong.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He proceeded to ask after Keith nodded to the statement of not saying sorry. This time he shook his head and buried his face back into Lance's now tear soaked shirt.

"No-I.. god.. it was horrible, Lance. You.. Pidge.. Hunk.. Shiro.. you all.. and the Galra! And I did it! I didn't even.. even hesitate! I just-I-" Lance could tell Keith was beginning to work himself up into hysterics again, his voice taking an octave higher and shaking, his hands tightening into fists, his eyes glistening with new tears.

"Okay, Keith, shhh.. darling, it's okay, just breathe. We don't have to talk about it," Lance said, and God. Lance was too understanding. Keith didn't deserve someone like Lance, who was equal parts gentle, sweet, brave and loyal. Lance was too good for him.. too good for anyone, really. Too good for the universe. Of course Lance didn't see it, no matter how many times Keith tried to convince him of it.

Keith calmed himself down, taking a few steadying breaths, moving to lay down on Lance's lap. "thank you.." he said softly, and at the confused look he received from Lance he elaborated, "for coming. For helping me. No one has ever done that for me." Well, except for Shiro, but Shiro would do something like this for anyone. That was the thing about Shiro; he cared too much about everyone.

"Of course, Keith," Lance promised, bending down and kissing the top of his head, beginning to run his fingers through Keith's hair once again. "now, go to sleep, cariño."

Keith nodded gently, snuggling even more against Lance's lap. "Night. Love you." Before Keith had time to freak about the use of the "L" word he was out like a light.

Lance, however, was all too aware of the use of the word, eyes widening as he looked down at Keith.

Lance mulled the use of the word over in his head until he fell asleep, shifting so that he was now laying down, his arms wrapped around Keith's waist and keeping his back against his chest, Lance's chin on top of Keith's head, both sleeping comfortably.

The next morning the door hissed open and Pidge started, "get up, Keith, we need to find La-" they cut off when they saw Keith and Lance curled up together. Quickly, Pidge darted away, returning seconds later with Hunk. "I told you!" They exclaimed in a hushed whisper, snapping a picture with an Altean camera.

Hunk looked at her, "Pidge, I'm never doubting your relationship intuition again." And with that the door slid closed, Keith and Lance still firmly wrapped around each other.


End file.
